1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a motion editing apparatus and a motion editing method as well as a computer program wherein motion data which define motions of a robot having a plurality of degrees of joint freedom are edited and a robot apparatus which reproduces edited motion data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a motion editing apparatus and a motion editing method as well as a computer program for a robot wherein motion data which define a motion of an end effecter such as hand tips which can provide an operation for a particular operation object are edited and a robot apparatus which reproduces a motion of a movable member in accordance with edited motion data.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a motion editing apparatus and a motion editing method as well as a computer program wherein motion data for causing a robot to plot a picture or a character using a pen provided on hand tips are edited and a robot apparatus which reproduces a motion of plotting a hand-written inputted picture or character in accordance with edited motion data. The present invention more particularly relates to a motion editing apparatus and a motion editing method as well as a computer program wherein motion data for causing a robot to plot a picture or a character based on a hand-written input of a user from a mouse or a tablet are edited and a robot apparatus which reproduces a motion of plotting a hand-written inputted picture or character in accordance with edited motion data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Research and development regarding the structure or stabilized walking control of a legged mobile robot has been and is proceeded recently and also the expectation for practical use of a legged mobile robot is increasing. The legged mobile robot is less stable and more difficult in posture control and walking control than a crawler type robot. However, the legged mobile robot is superior in that flexible walking or running motion such as an ascending or descending motion on a staircase or getting over of an obstacle can be implemented.
A conventional robot is applied principally to substitutive execution or supporting of various human works in industrial activities or production activities as represented by a 6-axis manipulator. The robot in this instance presupposes that it acts in a structured environment such as a factory, and hence does not basically perform complicated physical interactions with a human being or an environment.
In contrast, attention is paid to an application of a robot as an application of the partner type, that is, an application to “symbiosis” with a human being or to “entertainment”. It is desirable for a robot of the type described to have a high interaction capacity in interaction not only with an environment or an object but also with a human being. A robot of the partner type is not fixed at a predetermined place like a 6-axis manipulator but is normally formed as a mobile robot which autonomously moves to provide various services. A representative one of such partner type robots is a humanoid.
A partner type robot has a high information processing capacity, and the robot itself can be grasped as a kind of computer system. In other words, an advanced and complicated motion sequence formed from a combination of motion patterns implemented on a robot or of a plurality of basic motion patterns, that is, “motion data” of a robot, are produced and edited by work similar to that in computer programming.
In order for a robot body to be spread widely, various motion data for implementing motions of the robot body can preferably be utilized freely. Further, it is estimated that, in the future, a robot spreads itself deeply not only into the industrial world but also into everyday life in general households. Above all, as regards products which pursue entertaining effects, it is demanded strongly that a choreographer, a designer, a user in general or the like can produce motion data simply and readily even if it is not acquainted with a high-level knowledge of computer programming or motion control of a robot.
Therefore, the inventors of the present invention believe that it is desirable to construct a development environment wherein motion editing for a robot can be performed comparatively readily and efficiently by interactive processing, that is, a motion editing system.
A robot such as, for example, a humanoid can perform various physical interactions with the external world such that it not only uses movable legs to walk round freely but also perform an operation for a particular operation object. Further, such a robot as just described can use end effecters such as hand tips to implement motions having high entertaining effects such as to play a musical instrument or to plot a picture or a character to amuse the user.
In the robot industry, a method of designing a trajectory of each operation member of a robot beginning with a hand tip and determining a motion of each joint of a robot arm using inverse kinematics (inverse kinematical arithmetic operation) from the designed trajectory is known well. However, a motion of gripping a pen with hand tips and plotting an arbitrary picture or character is complicated, and it is not easy to edit motion data for the motion. A motion of the type described does not being achieved sufficiently only if a trajectory of a pen point on a canvas is designed, and it is necessary to design motions with regard to whether the pen point during movement contacts with the canvas or is spaced from the canvas or what writing pressure is applied for plotting.
For example, a wall surface painting robot system has been proposed and is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 8-118263 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1). The wall surface paining robot system of Patent Document 1 includes a robot main body which attracts and moves on a wall surface, an arm attached to the robot main body, a painting gun movable along the arm, and a painting control device for inputting a picture pattern to be painted. The robot main body is moved upwardly and downwardly and further moved in a horizontal direction on a painting surface under the control of the painting control device. During such movement, paint is sprayed at a fixed pitch to the wall surface to paint a picture pattern.
Meanwhile, a plotting robot is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-275473 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2) wherein plotting operation data are produced from image data obtained by image pickup by using a camera and a plotting medium provided at an end of an arm is used to plot on a plotting medium.
However, the systems disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 suggest nothing of motion designing for causing a robot to perform plotting and have nothing to do with simplification of editing work of motion data for plotting an arbitrary picture or character.